


helter swelter

by anna_kat



Series: Ward x Simmons Summer [17]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Ward x Simmons Summer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-03
Updated: 2014-11-03
Packaged: 2018-02-24 01:00:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2562299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anna_kat/pseuds/anna_kat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jemma takes Fitz and Skye along with her to venture into the wilderness (read: a state park) in search of samples for a project. It should be simple, but when it's not, she sort of forgets she has a park ranger for a boyfriend. AU.</p><p>For the 'compass' theme.</p>
            </blockquote>





	helter swelter

**Author's Note:**

> From week seventeen of WardxSimmons Summer, for the _compass_ theme.

“We’re lost.” Fitz groans matter-of-factly.

“We are not lost.” Jemma replies at the same time Skye cups her hands around her mouth and bellows, “ _Wilson_!”

Fitz snickers before trying to cover his obvious amusement beneath another (rather dramatic) huff. “This was a terrible idea. I told you that eight thousand times. At least. Jesus, it’s hot out here.”

Jemma rolls her eyes and smacks a mosquito from Skye’s shoulder with an apologetic look. “No one said you had to come.”

“She did!” Fitz points in Skye’s direction, nearly jabbing her in the chest because of her proximity. When she raises an eyebrow, he drops his hand quickly. “Sorry.”

“I believe that what I said was Jem wanted to go get some samples and so we were going to have a little adventure time and go on a hike. Get out in nature. Do the fresh air thing. I told you that we’d be back before dinner, which is now false, and that we’d call if we needed anything. You were the one who literally jumped out of bed and demanded we wait for you.” Skye wipes the back of her hand against her hairline, grimacing at the sweat that has collected there. “Also, looking back, if you’d have just stayed at home, we’d actually have someone to call now to save us from going all Survivor.”

“Did you try calling your father again?” Jemma asks, sitting down against a log to examine the long cut down almost her entire leg, thigh to ankle, which she’s cleaned twice and is still managing to smear blood along her skin.

Skye’s nose wrinkles. “Uh huh. No answer. Conference. Are you sure that’s okay? Because it looks awful.”

Jemma pulls the towel she’d used before from her backpack and swipes it down her leg again. “Yes, I’m sure. It’s fine. Hardly deep at all, just… bloody.”

Fitz is determinedly looking in the other direction. “Don’t bother, Skye, she wouldn’t tell us if it was bothering her unless maybe she’d need an amputation. Probably not even then. She’d just chop it.”

“Gross.” Skye groans, trying to peer at her own shoulder blade. “Mine’s barely a scrape, already stopped and everything. Fitz didn’t get a mark at all. How the hell did you even manage that, Jemma?”

She keeps her eyes down, shrugging slightly. “I was just trying to keep the two of you from the rougher patch. You tumbled down quite nicely, I just got in the way of one particularly nasty branch, I suppose.”

Fitz’s entire face softens, and he sighs before taking the towel from her and kneeling down to help her clean up. “You’re far too good at throwing yourself in the line of fire, Jemma Simmons.”

She gives him a tiny, sincere smile. “Oh, Fitz. It was a tree branch and a fall down an entirely too steep hill for a state park. Hardly the line of fire.”

A few feet away, Skye swats herself in the face while trying to deter a mosquito, and Jemma and Fitz wince when her palm smacks directly over her sunburned forehead. She groans loudly and turns to Jemma. “Where’s your Clark Kent boyfriend when we actually need him? Because seriously, he loiters around our apartment for days-”

“He does not loiter!” Jemma retorts.

Fitz ignores her, picking up where Skye left off. “-refusing to crack a smile unless you’re in his immediate line of sight-”

“Do you have a problem with my boyfriend being fond of me?”

Skye snorts. “We have a problem with him  _fondling_  you in  _our_ direct line of sight-”

Jemma squawks in a way that she’s sure is not entirely attractive. “That happened once and we didn’t realize-”

“Yeah, yeah, so you say.” Skye sweeps her long hair back into a knot at the top of her head before propping her hands on her hips. “He follows you around all the time, but when we’ve actually been lost in a national park for  _hours_ , he’s nowhere to be found. Where is he, Jemma? Where?”

“He’s working.” Jemma mumbles, hoping her blush of embarrassment blends in well enough with the already-present flush of her skin.

Skye and Fitz give her nearly identical looks of incredulity (it was actually a little weird) before the latter speaks up. “Right. He’s working. At his job. As a…”

“Oh! A park ranger!” Jemma flings her backpack down at her feet and starts to dig for her phone, choosing to ignore the looks her roommates are probably giving her. “I’ll call him.”

“What an idea!” Skye cheers over-enthusiastically. Her grin turns to a grimace when she catches sight of the back of Fitz’s sunburned neck. (She shakes her head rapidly when he asks what she’s looking at.)

There are a few rings before someone picks up on the other end of the line. “Hello, you have reached the office of the most incredible and attractive park rangers, how may I assist you today?”

A surprised laugh bubbles up Jemma’s throat. “Oh, Trip, please tell me you don’t always answer the phone that way.”

She can hear the wide smile in the man’s voice. “Of course not, Sharon would kill me. I saw your number on the ID. What’s up, lovely lady?”

Jemma shakes her head fondly. “I don’t suppose Grant is in at the moment?”

The sound of rolling chair wheels on the wood floor echoes through the line before Trip answers. “No, actually, you just missed him. He and Sharon took the jeep out a few minutes ago. A hiker saw a flare gun go off a couple miles toward the river and reported it, in case someone was stuck out there.”

“Oh.” Jemma squeaks. “So, the flare was actually visible, hm?”

Trip allows a lengthy pause. “You got lost, didn’t you? You bunch of geniuses just couldn’t stay on the trail. You’re the ones they’re after and they don’t even know it.” There’s another pause and Jemma is positive she hears a chuckle escape him.

“It’s not funny!” She snaps half-heartedly. “We’ve been out here all day and the GPS isn’t working and everybody’s sunburned and exhausted and we fell down a hill and had to give the last of the snacks to Fitz to avoid a homicidal rage-”

“Homicidal?”

“Yes, Skye and I would like to live through this disaster of a hike, so we had to feed him.” Jemma sighs, turning away from Fitz when he rolls his eyes. “We’ve been out here since this morning.”

“And it’s getting dark!” Skye yelps as she kicks a rock with the toe of her shoe. “And not at all cooling off!”

“It’s been hours longer than we intended and it’s getting dark and I’d really like some bandages and I just want to take a hot shower and lay in my comfy bed-” The beginning of Jemma’s sentence had started out fine, and then partway through dissolved into just a touch of panic.

Fitz and Skye both glance over at her with their own looks of genuine panic, like they won’t know what to do if she falls apart. Trip’s voice is soothing, but more serious than it had been before. “Jemma, listen, you’re alright. I don’t know why you didn’t call up here before, but I know the service out there gets sketchy. You’ve made it this far, right? You’re going to be fine. Grant and Sharon are on their way, and they’ll get you all squared away. Is anybody injured or sick or anything?”

Jemma sucks in a sharp breath and then lets it out slowly, repeating the process a few times until her breathing evens out. She feels a touch better. “Mostly just sunburn and bug bites. A few scrapes.”

“That’s a lie! She’s lying!” Skye calls, trying to snag Jemma’s phone.

“Who’s hurt?” Trip asks, and Jemma can practically see the shake of his head. “It’s you, isn’t it? What happened?”

Jemma sighs and narrows her eyes at Skye. “Just from the trip down the hill. It’s a minor scrape. Looks worse than it is.”

“There’s blood everywhere!” Fitz yells next and Jemma barely refrains from smacking the side of his head.

“It’s not everywhere! I’m fine!”

Trip sighs this time. “Alright, I’m going to get on the radio to Grant and Sharon and tell them they’re looking for the three of you. They should be nearby very shortly. Call me back if anything happens or if they don’t find you in the next ten or fifteen minutes, okay?”

“Okay.” Jemma agrees, sitting back down on the fallen log. “Thank you, Trip.”

“See you soon, Jem.”

When she hangs up, the other two are looking at her. “What?”

They don’t answer, just shake their heads at her for a moment until Fitz starts spraying the bug spray like mace.

It’s almost exactly seven minutes later (she’s keeping track) when the rumble of the park jeep is heard before the headlights cut between the trees. Another minute or two later, and Grant and Sharon have maneuvered down the hill toward them.

Her boyfriend has a distinctly impassive look on his face when they finally reach them, and Jemma tries to offer up a smile. One of his eyebrows goes up as he looks down at her, purposely holding her gaze.

There’s a tense pause before Sharon cocks her head to one side. “Alright, you two, let’s get back up to the jeep.” She ushers Fitz and Skye ahead of her quickly, and then takes the lead a few feet up when they start to bicker with each other.

It’s quiet still, and Grant’s still got his eyes locked on hers. “Hello, darling.” Jemma tries. “I probably should have called earlier, I suppose, but I know you don’t answer your cell very often when you’re working and we kept losing service and it just slipped my mind, I guess… But we’re all fine. Just tired and a little hungry.”

“You’re bleeding.” Grant says quietly. “Let me see.”

He hates when she’s hurt. Physically, emotionally, he hates it. “Can we look at it later? When we get back up to the office maybe? Trip can bandage it for me.”

He narrows his eyes. “He can. You’re not keeping me out of the room, though.” He lets out a little sigh and reaches forward to tuck a curl behind her ear and then brush his thumb along her hairline. “Is it bad? Tell me, honestly.”

Jemma shakes her head, relaxing a bit more under his gentle touch. “It isn’t bad. No stitches or anything. It’s just sort of long and I suppose it did bleed quite a bit, but… just some cleaning and some bandages. It’ll be fine. I’m fine.”

Grant shakes his head, and now she can see the careful smile on his face. He reaches for her backpack and slings it over his shoulder, wrapping one arm around her waist and helping her scale the hill. “Maybe next time you want to do some ‘adventuring’, I’ll go with you.”

She tips her head and beams up at him. “Would you?”

“Of course I would.” They’ve finally made it to the top, and he turns his back to the glare of the jeep’s headlights so he can lean down and kiss her softly. (They both ignore the whistles and dramatic kissing sounds from the others.) “How about no bleeding in the name of science next time, though, okay?”

“I… cannot promise that.”


End file.
